LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 19

LITERARY NOTES

Received: "Recollections of a Savage," by Edwin A. Ward, from Herbert Jenkins, Ltd., London;: "The Scourge of the Moors," and "The Wreck of the Andromeda," from Ward, Lock, and Co.

There is a future Nbrthcliffe, or something of the sort, now at the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, in one N. P.- Wollett, a youth of 13 or so. With the aid of one or two kindred spirits he is running a magazine, and they seem to have-a keen idea of business. You can buy the "Astoria" (as it is called) for 6d, but you can hire it (lor one night only) for 3d. It is typed, and consequently it suits the publishers better to let than to sell it. As to the contents, they are much the same as those of/certain other Sydney publications, except' that the grammar is rather better.

There seems to be some doubt in the mind of the public about the pronunciation of the name of John Buchan, author of "A History of the Great War," which Frank Simonds calls "the best history I have seen written in the English language." The publisher, the Houghton Mimin Company, would like to uo of service to the reading public and offer a word that would rhyme with correct pronunciation of "Buchan," out if there is such a word it seems to escape their memory,' so the best advice they can give is to pronounce the name as quickly and as shortly as possible. "Buk-un," with-the accent on the first syllable, approximates the correct English pronunciation.. '

A definite edition of the 'works /of .Samuel Butler is promised by Jonathan Cape, of London. It will be called the .Shrewsbury Edition, ' and will be 'in twenty volumes, the first two of which will be ready in September.' It will include work of Butler's which is unobtainable in any other form, including the life of his grandfather, Bishop Butler, which has been out of print for a number of years. The edition will be limited to 750 sets, half of whiph have been • secured for America. Mr. Cape has just brought out a cheap edition of "The 1 Way of All Flesh," and will soon publish " Erewhon" and " Erewhon Revisited," in similar form. ■

When in the late summer Mr. J. Horace Harding deprived Scotland of Ra.eburn,'s. memorable, portrait.-, oi!. \Sir Walter Scott he also bought and recently exhibited with\it in New York a'brass-bound mahogany tab]p. desk from. Abbotsford, says the "Glasgow' Herald." "The desk, sold at Sotheby's in August, 1922, for £32, has on the brass border of the lid two inscriptions. The first reads: 'Walter Scott of Abbotsford'; the second, 'This box"belonged to Walter Scott, Esq., and contained during their progress to press the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' 'Marmion,' and 'The Lady of the Lake.' And it was on this bo:: that these poems were written. John Ballantye, Edinburgh, 1812.' " - -

There are a number of people in New Zealand who will learn with much regret of the recenl death of Mr. M. H. Koebel, in London, at the age of 51, after a few days' illness from pneumonia. It is some years'since Mr. Koebel was in New Zealand, but he'was a very wellknown traveller and writer, and for some time, past, he had more or less specialised on South America and its development. As "The Times" remarks: His books will long be consulted by all interested in Latin America and his premature death is regarded. as a great loss to the cause of British friendship with South America." He went on a special mission to that country for the British Government in 1921, and he founded and edited , the "Anglo-South American Handbook." Mr. Koebel marred s daughter of Mr. Anthony Garstiri, of New Zealand,. and, they had one daughter. ■■

Two interesting discoveries are recorded by Sir-Chartres Biron, the Bow street Magistrate, in his "Pious Opinions," in connection with Mr. Justice Stareleigh's famous ruling in "Bard Dll v. Pickwick":—"We must not have what the soldier said, because it is not evidence." In the French translation of the Pickwick Papers, we learn, the last five words are omitted from the text, presumably because the translator, "realised that it was impossible to persuade his.countrymen that what everyone said to everyone else was not only-admissible, but the best possible evidence' in any case whatsoever.." Even more delightfully significant is the discovery that, in the (pre-war) German translation .that whole passage was omitted because it was not considered a proper observation to make about a soldier. . •

A remarkable exhibition of Dickensiana has been held at the bookshop of Harry F. Marks in New York. It-included an extraordinary collection of first editions, ■autograph letters, documents, and-relics of the great novelist. Among the relics of Dickens were the grey.bowler hat he wore on the flay of his death, a sandalwood box presented to Kate Hogarth on her wedding day, with the inscription, "From Charles Dickens to Kate, 2nd April, 1836," an inscription which he carved with his own hand; and the silver loving cup presented by the sfaff of the. "Morning Chronicle" to Dickens in 1837. The first editions included the Lapham-Wallace in original parts,, recently- purchased- by Mr. Marks for £1250. Among the original drawings were Pailthorpe's originals for "Pickwick" based upon the conceptions of "Phizi'V . ■ •

, Great literary interest attaches -to the discovery connected with the famous proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to obey which Shadrach, Meshach ,and Abednego were cast into the burning fiery furnace. Mr. C. Leonard Woolley, director of the expedition sent out to Di- of the Chaldees by the British Museum, and the University Museum, Philadelphia, states that the temple of the Moon-God proved to be of tha : greatest interest. It was founded at a very early. date, . probably in the fourth millennium 8.C.,- and rebuilt or repaired by a series of kings who have left their records either stamped on its bricks or inscribed on the stone hingeblocks in which its doors turned". ■ Up to 'the 'late Babylonian period the old building preserved. consistently its original form; Nebuchadnezzar (600 8.C.) remodelled it, apparently to suit a change of. ritual whereby ■ public services took the place of, or were added,»to, the private rites of former days. Such a

change would -be consistent with, the story of the king's proclamation recorded in the Bible. The site of the Ur of the Chaldees proved unexpectedly rich in objects. These include many inscribed clay > tablets, mostly business documents covering the period of the Third Dynasty (from 2300 B.C. to 2000 8.C.), jewellery of the time of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Persians, weapons, and pottery. A series of bricks bearing royal stamps which cover the whole life of the city from the second half of the third millennium to the sixth century before Christ was also found. These objects, adds Mr. Woolley, will form a special exhibition at the British Museum pending their distribution among Great Britain, Philadelphia, and the Iraq Government.

A Maaarin Bible was recently sold in London for £9500. and other rare editions at the _ same . sale realised sums which excite.the dreams of avarice. It happens with increasing ■ frequency that a picture or a book- which has changed hands quite often for' some trifling sum. acquires a. vast value in collectors' eyes, and imagination at once seizes on the prospect of a distant, fortune by some lucky purchase from a- lumber-room. Unhappily, such essentially human hopes axe commonly frustrated. '•

Phil. May at work is thus described by JTr. Edwin Ward, in "Some Recollections of a Savage" :—"The dining-room was crowded with noisy revellers helping themselves freely to a hospitality which was always boundless, when Phil, taking me away by the arm, led to upstairs into his working-room. What a contrast to the rowdy scene below! Every detail necessary for the practice of his masterly draughtsmanship was in perfect order, and with simple pride he described to me his method of work. Nothing appeared to be left to chance. He proceeded'to illustrats the process by which he had arrived at his ultimate simplicity of line. Over an elaborate drawing he stretched a sheet of tracing paper, and preserving only the main line of construction, he found that by eliminating all superfluous detail he could present his picture with greater force and directness. The sloping desk at which he worked was for all the world like a lectern."